Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, is Doin' Costa Rica. Yup, Gupta will be visiting Rancho Margot in El Castillo, about a 40 minute drive from La Fortuna, next to Lake Arenal, and doing a story on Rancho Margot and its owner, Juan Sostheim. I've known Juan for about 6 years and if anyone deserves to get their story out, it's Juan and his vision, which is Rancho Margot.

These couple snippets, taken from the Rancho Margot website, might give you a little insight on why Dr. Gupta would make his way to a little diamond in the rough that is Rancho Margot:

"Having traveled all over the world and witnessed the devastation that had occurred in other “paradises”, Juan Sostheim and family decided to develop Rancho Margot as a teaching community based on sustainable rural tourism and conservation."

"At Rancho Margot there are no cables or wires that come into Rancho Margot. Electricity is generated with two hydro turbines located on the ranch. Methane gas for cooking is produced with bio-digesters, and hot water is produced by heat exchangers located inside our compost ovens. We have no waste, we only have reusable resources."

Coincidentally, yours truly was out at Rancho Margot yesterday doing a little videotaping when Juan told me even BETTER news he'd just learned moments before.
Rancho Margot has been OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED- the first place in ALL Costa Rica, to be certified carbon negative. That's right, not just carbon neutral but carbon negative. Nothing like leading by example.

That's the yoga center, pretty COOL I think.

Needless to say, Rancho Margot is an impressive piece of property and if you're interested in any of the following, Rancho Margot just may be a perfect place to visit and get a little education on how it 'could' be.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

TripAdvisor is probably one of the most high-profile, manipulated sites on the planet. Why? Because TripAdvisor pretty much lets anyone say anything about anyone with ZERO accountability. And although John Q Public isn't aware of this, restaurant/hotel owners and others in the travel biz, ARE. Unfortunately, since TripAdvisor has done a bang-up marketing job promoting themselves as pretty much the Bible on travel info, and like I said, John Q Public believes it, the folks in the travel biz feel they have to play the TripAdvisor game... and unless said restaurants/hotels and travel services are well established, reputable or just plain BIG- most do. Make no mistake, there's a severe risk when you get in bed with TripAdvisor and this quote pretty much sums it up: Live by the sword - die by the sword.

As the above example indicates, it's really quite simple. Anyone can post a positive or negative review about any restaurant, hotel etc, without so much as ever stepping foot in said establishment. Hotel and restaurant owners know this. So they manipulate. They have people (usually friends and family) write positive reviews for them and/or negative reviews for the competition. The outcome over time is obvious, it's an absolute FREE FRAWL for rankings since TripAdvisor does almost nothing to stop it. Therefore thousands of reviews are bogus. TripAdvisor says fraud is minimal. I beg to differ.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Our friends, Mike and Paul, the owners of Coyaba Tropical, a VERY straight-friendly, B&B, located in beautiful Manuel Antonio, have added a brand NEW pool and jacuzzi area.
We love Coyaba Tropical. In the gay, internet travel world, it's known as a gay-owned, B&B, but really, it's a VERY straight-friendly destination and probably has just as many COOL straight people staying there as gay.... probably because COOL straight people know gay places are the places to GO*wink-wink* But the major draw just may be Mike and Paul because they're the consummate hosts- it's like staying with family.

Well, now Coyaba is that much better with a pool and jacuzzi area. Check it out. The first video is one we did a few months ago, the second is a quick look at the new pool and jacuzzi area. GREAT JOB on the pool area guys. Can't wait to test it out.